School decision

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uwknight

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Jan 30, 2015
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What have others done? DS is 75% positive on his first choice school, however he/we do want to check out his other school choices. But the Army ROTC letter is due March 1, and we cannot check out his second choice until a few days before. If we send in the letter with the first choice checked, are we wasting time both ours and the second choice cadre's? Does each cadre find out really quick where each person has decided to go? Bottom line, we do want to visit all the schools to make sure, but we want to be respectful of everybody's time.
 
I would not submit the letter until he has made his choice. It sounds like you have time to visit his 2nd choice school before the deadline. Wait until after that to decide. If you have already selected the school, then what would the point be of going to the 2nd school visit? As soon as the school choice is recorded on the portal, all of the school's ROOs know if their school was the one selected.
 
I scanned and e mailed my acceptance along with uploading it to my portal. It was accepted within a day or so, so I would imagine you'd be fine waiting until after the visit, as long as you technically get it to CC by 3/1.
 
If DS still has 25% question may want to try and get to 2nd school, even if after he puts in his choice with CC. Keep communication open with 2nd school. Others in the know have made clear CC makes no guarantees but they may provide opportunity to switch choices if unit still has slots.
 
My son was awarded a 3-yr scholarship to his top three choices - two SMC's and one in-state school. In-state school has offered to pick up the first year so all four years (room and board covered by school as well) are covered there. We have now visited all three and he definitely has an idea as to where he would like to attend.

He really wants active duty after graduation so if he would perform the same at all three schools would his chances of gaining active duty be the same at all three? We are trying to figure out what an advantage of the SMC would be for the approximate $50K price tag for the first year.

Thanks for any information!
 
Well at the SMCs, if he completes everything satisfactorily and receives his CO's endorsement he is supposed to get Active Duty. So his chances are better at an SMC. With that being said, this is 2015, who knows what 2019 will be like for commissioning rates, active duty slots, "guaranteed active duty" from an SMC. That is always the unknown. Your DS does well enough he should get Active Duty from any school. You can look at past threads and see those selected for Active Duty. OML is what is important. If you follow the OML discussions on here you will see that is a moving target right now (how it is scored, what is included and how its weighted) and has been in a state of change for a little bit now. $50k is a lot of money and its only a decision you as a family can make. Other factors to consider; What if he decides ROTC isn't for him, can you afford to keep him at those schools? I know right now every high school senior is saying "I want active duty and I want to stay 20." That is a slight over exaggeration, but the truth is, they are 17-18 years old. Things change. Maybe they get hurt or ROTC isn't for them. Maybe they get to summer training and realize the Army isn't what they thought it was. Maybe they are an engineering major and love it and decide they want to build buildings for a living and the reserves are a great option. Just a little food for thought and best of luck to you and your DS.
 
I guess that is my concern....if OML is the only thing that is important and he receives the training he needs in order to be prepared does it really benefit him in the long run to attend a SMC?
 
Only you and he can decide that. The biggest thing is where will he thrive best at? At an SMC he is going to have exposure to alot of military members whom are retired and active duty. The "war stories", leadership lessons, additional training opportunities that a Corps provides are all great benefits of an SMC. Small classrooms are another. SMCs are very regimented and strict. For some that is the best environment, others it is not. Great officers come from all commissioning sources. Some of the pros of attending an SMC is also they tend to have great alumni networks. This can be very beneficial when you leave the military, but also great while on active duty as alumni are around bases to help you transition to new a base, classmates stationed on base so you have friends, etc. Now with a $50k price tag, I am assuming you are out of state. The alumni networks are national, but the reality is if you live in the middle of nowhere Wyoming, that network might be as great if you live in South Carolina and attend the Citadel. If he is also looking at a school in state as his other option, obviously it has probably a strong alumni network for that state. What size is the ROTC detachment at his in state option? It is probably smaller than one at an SMC, so there are pros and cons to that. It depends on what he is looking for.
 
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